[BossingAround]

> remember that noise-cancelling is NOT hearing protection

I fell for this one as well. I wouldn't be to surprised if noise-cancelling could actually cause tinnitus, or make an onset of it worse (though I haven nothing but biased anecdata to argue the opinion).

[chakintosh]

One thing is sure is that Noise-cancellinng makes tinnitus more noticeable as it's not being drown out by the environment sounds. And It also allows you to listen to music on a much lower volume, which is actually better for your ears.

[rhino369]

I didn't even realize I had tinnitus until I used noise-canceling headphones.

[chakintosh]

same. visited the doc and he said your ears are perfect. No reason you have tinnitus but i'd swear I have it.

[flyinghamster]

The key is to remember that noise cancellation allows you to turn the music _down_.

[jerf]

Noise cancelling headphones have always hurt my ears after a relatively short time using them. One of the ways they work is to shove some of their inevitable distortion up into the high frequencies, above what anyone can hear. I've never heard anything, but they definitely hurt my ears. I don't trust them. This is data. It isn't very solid data, because I can't give you sound pressure levels or anything, and it isn't a lot of data. But normal headphones simply don't make my ears hurt, even after hours and hours of usage in a day, which is most every work day for me now.

(I mean active, "true" noise cancellation generating "anti-sound" for your eardrums, not the passive things labelled as "noise cancelling" because there's apparently no legal definition of the term and anyone can call anything "noise cancelling".)

[Nursie]

That is interesting, I was using noise cancelling headphones a lot when mine came started.

Of course the morning it came on I was also recovering from being riotously drunk the night before, and I'm more inclined to believe something about that triggered it

[gompertz]

Long term sufferer here.. One specific metal concert 15 years ago did me in (unfortunately). I too found that noise cancelling headphones actually flared up my tinnitus more; and resorted to selling my headphones.

[tux3]

I have the same vague suspicion. Nothing credible to support it, but it'd be an interesting data point to collect among the affected population